ARK Invest Bets Big On Bitcoin Friendly Cash App – Sells PayPal Shares

Ark Invest has sold majority of their PayPal holdings and are now fully backing Bitcoin-friendly Cash App.

Pro-crypto asset management company ARK Invest has sold its holdings of fintech giant PayPal and backed heavily on Bitcoin-friendly Cash App.

Ark Invest CEO, Cathie Wood, spoke about her preference for Block’s (formerly known as Square) Cash App over PayPal’s Venmo at the 2022 North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami.

According to Wood, Cash App has entered an organic growth structure in contrast to Venmo’s “top-down” approach to BTC and praised Block’s wider view on the digital asset via the Lighting network.

In an interview with CNBC, The ARK Invest CEO was bullish on Cash App’s long-term growth. She said:

“We tend to put our bets on who we believe will be the winners. As we consolidated our portfolios during a risk-off period, we chose Block over PayPal.”

ARK Invest has sold most of its exposure in Paypal Holdings at the beginning of February after the fintech giant dropped out from an ambitious growth strategy it put in place in 2021. Also, ARK Invest also sold shares of several household names and, in turn, took positions in more innovative niches.

The asset manager earlier commented on Block’s performance.

“Block’s solid performance assuaged analysts’ concerns that, in the absence of Covid-19 government stimulus, the momentum in Cash App, Block’s consumer-focused digital wallet, would slow down considerably.

Block’s management also noted continued strong momentum in January and February, citing 21% growth in Cash App’s gross profit on a year-over-year and 73% [on a] two-year-annualized basic.”

Cash App witnessed a massive revenue growth after introducing Bitcoin trading on its app, which accounted for 76% of its revenue in 2020. The following year, Cash App managed to net a profit of $2.03 billion, generating $12.3 billion in revenue – 81% of that came from BTC.